The Seven Last Words

Have you ever attended a crucifixion?  Have you ever been there while another human being was being nailed to a cross?    I have!!

Oh, it wasn’t a real crucifixion.  It wasn’t the actual thing.   It was a re-enactment on a stage, but, for me, it was real enough!   So real in fact, that I had to turn my eyes away from the scene, repeatedly, less I be so caught up in the drama that I be overcome with emotion.

It was October 2000.  My wife and I were in Oberammergau, Germany, and we had the wonderful opportunity to attend the world-famous Passion Play, the re-enactment of the story of Jesus’ life,  which occurs in this little mountain village in southern Germany every ten years.

It’s an amazing accomplishment for the inhabitants of this little town.  Picture it.  Every 10 years, the normal activities of the citizens are put on hold for almost a full year, as virtually every person in the community becomes involved in one way or another in the presentation of this major day-long drama.

The play is divided into two parts.  In the morning, the story of Jesus ministry is told.   We see Jesus choosing His disciples, and then teaching and healing as He wanders through the countryside mingling with the people.  We learn of Jesus’ humanity; of His compassion for the sick and the weak; of His amazing wisdom as He speaks to the people.   Little children run to greet Him.  The sick and the suffering gather around, seeking His touch.

We see Jesus with all His compassion and love.  Someone to whom we’d all be attracted.

Then comes the lunch break.  And while you enjoy the chance to stretch your legs and walk around this charming little village, poking into the shops, looking at all the displays, perhaps even walking through the modernistic stations-of-the-cross constructed in a park like setting.

But then it’s time to go back into the theatre.  There an ominous hush settles over the audience as the second act begins.  You know where it’s leading.  You know that sooner or later you’re going to see Jesus tortured, mocked, then nailed to the cross. 

By the time that moment comes, the intensity of emotion has become so strong  that you feel as if you are actually there.  Back in time, standing among the crowd  as the Roman soldiers go about their terrible task.

The sound of nails being hammered into wood sends shock waves throughout the theatre.  There’s a finality to it all that’s hard to endure.  Then, slowly, but surely, the cross is raised into position.  And there before your eyes is Jesus  hanging in utter misery and pain upon that ugly symbol of torture.

I had difficulty looking at the cross.  I felt faint; shaken; over whelmed with emotion.

Crucifixion is not something that we really understand.  We know a little bit about torture.  Not that we’ve seen it, but we do, from time to time read about people enduring unbelievable suffering at the hands of evil regimes.  We know that there are people in Iraq who have suffered terrible pain in lengthy sessions of torture. 

But crucifixion, that’s not really part of our field of knowledge. 

The historian Cicero described crucifixion as “the most cruel and hideous of tortures”.  Yet this is what Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, endured ‘willingly’ on our behalf. 

The criminal who taunted Jesus while he himself was hanging upon a cross, - had it right.   Jesus could have called upon the power of God to rescue Him from this terrible fate. 

But He didn’t!   Instead, (as Luke records 9:51)  “He set His face to go to Jerusalem” and so Jesus walked into His destiny with His eyes wide open.  He knew what lay ahead.  He knew what suffering He was about to endure.  But for our sakes He endured it all.

And so, on that fateful Friday, long ago a day we now call ‘Good Friday’, at the place called “Golgotha”, (the place of the scull) our Master was cruelly nailed to a cross, then lifted up  to hang there exposed to the elements the intense heat of the sun, the wind and the dryness  until He died.

We can not imagine he pain He suffered.  It is beyond anything that any of us have ever had to endure.

Pain has a way of getting our attention, making us extremely self-aware.  When our bodies are inflicted with the agony of pain it’s hard to concentrate on anything else.  Pain demands our full attention.  As humans we are most self-centered when we are suffering.

Given this reality, we would understand if Jesus had centered in upon His own needs, during His agony on the Cross.   But that’s not what we find when we see our Master hanging  there at Golgotha.  His words from the Cross reveal the wonder of our Lord.

Let’s take a moment or two this morning, to think about the suffering of our Lord, to see what it reveals about the character of Jesus.  Let’s listen to His words as He hung there on the Cross.

            I           FATHER FORGIVE THEM                                      Luke 23: 34

He uttered His first words just as the Cross was being raised from the ground.  At the very moment when the pain would have been greatest, as the weight of His body tore unmercifully against those ugly nails that pinned His body to the rough wood. 

At the very moment when the pain was the most severe, and when one would expect Him to be most focused upon his own agony, Jesus looked down at the people gathered at the foot of the cross, down upon His tormentors, and with a voice filled with compassion said:  “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”  (Luke 23: 34)

Think about it.  At the very moment when it would have been most difficult for Him to think of anything else but His own pain, Jesus was thinking of others, even the ones who were causing Him this torment. 

Truly, this was the Son of God.  For no one else, could have been so caring, so compassionate as to be able to pray for forgiveness for those committing such a vile deed.  But so full of love was our Master, that His attention was always focused upon the needs of others.

            II           CONCERN FOR HIS MOTHER                              John 19: 26-7

Be there’s more.  Having hung there in agony for some time, Jesus looked down upon the crowd gathered there on the hill, and saw His mother among the crowd,  weeping.   And as John, the Gospel writer records  (John 19:26-7)   ‘When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, He said to His mother,  “Woman, behold, your son!”  Then He said to the disciple,  “Behold, your mother!”’

What was He doing?  Surely He wasn’t denying Her motherhood with these words.  He wasn’t saying  He was no longer Her son.  Far from it. 

What He was doing here was ensuring that His mother would be looked after  when He was gone.   She was a widow, and as the eldest son, it was Jesus’ responsibility to care for her.    And so now He was passing on this responsibility for her care, to someone whom He trusted. 

We’re not positive to whom  the words ‘the disciple whom He love’  refers.  One possibility is that it was  ‘John’,  the son of Zebedee, one of Jesus’ disciples.  But recent Biblical scholarship favours, another John a man known as ‘John the Elder’ of Ephesus, who we believed was the writer of the Gospel John.

But whoever it was, the point is here again Jesus, in the midst of His own agony, was thinking of someone else.   This time His mother.

Who among us could be so self-less  in such a time of suffering?

            III          CONCERN FOR THE CRIMINAL WHO REPENTS         Luke 23: 43

But there’s even more. 

The suffering of the cross was shared that day with two other people, two criminals who had been tried and convicted of wrong doing.  One of them, his mind tormented with pain, looked over at Jesus and mocked him, saying:  “Aren’t you the Christ, save yourself and us!”

But his companion, shocked by these words, reprimanded him harshly, saying:  “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then, turning his face to Jesus, he cried out:  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

And once again, putting aside His own misery, Jesus had compassion on this second criminal, and said to him:  “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

It would have been very easy to reject both men.  After all, they deserved this punishment.  They were guilty!  But instead, our Master forgave the repentant sinner, and assured him that there was hope for his soul.

            IV         I THIRST                                                                                 John 19: 28

It was only after He had hung there in the blistering heat of the day for many hours, did any words about His own condition come from the lips of our Master:  “I thirst”, is all He said.

John suggests in His Gospel that these words were to fulfill Scripture, and they may indeed, refer back to Psalm 69, verse 21, where we read:  “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”

But whether this be true or not, we do know this, that this cry of thirst gave Jesus’ tormentors one last opportunity to inflict more suffering.  Scripture records, that the soldiers put a sponge into a bowl of vinegar, and raised this up to His lips.

But we hear no word of complaint from the cross. No cry of anger.  No expression of pain.  Jesus merely bore this added indignity, as He had born all the rest, silently, without objection.

            V         WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?          Matt. 27:46;   Mark 15:34

By now, the day was drawing to a close..  All the energy has been sapped from Jesus’ tormented body,  Then, with all the effort He could muster,  Jesus looked up to heaven and in a loud voice cried out:  “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

How strange, you may say!  What’s the meaning of these words?  Has He lost faith in God, His Father in heaven; the One who had been so close to Him all  through His life?  Did Jesus really feel that God had abandoned Him?  

No one knows for sure why Jesus used these words.  But one thing  we do know,   these exact words appear in Psalm 22 a Psalm often quoted by pious Jews in times of adversity.   The Psalm is a prayer of complaint to God, but it’s a Psalm that ends on a note of triumph. 

Listen to the words of this great Psalm:  “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations.”  And then skipping to the concluding words:  “They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, for he has done it!”  (Psalm 22:27-8; 31)

Could there be a stronger affirmation of the victory that Christ was achieving? 

You see, Jesus wasn’t crying out that God had deserted him, but rather He was affirming that what had been prophesied of old, had finally been accomplished.    

           
            VI         IT IS FINISHED

It was now six hours since the cross with its precious load had been raised upon the Hill of Golgotha.  Just half the time most victims suffered before death mercifully brought an end to their ordeal.  But for Jesus, because of all He had endured before being nailed to the cross, the end had come.

Jesus’ final words were:  “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)   Or if you prefer John’s version: “It is finished.” (John 19: 30)  Either way, Jesus ended his life with accomplishment.  He had done what He set out to do in the beginning.  He had given His life, that we should know eternal life.   

It was finished!

And so today, we remember our Lord’s sacrifice.  For a moment we share some of His pain and suffering, as we think about His ordeal.  But we conclude in worship as we sing the praises to the One who achieved, what no one else has ever been able to achieve, a life of total selflessness.  A life sacrificed for us all.

So let us remember, and give thanks.

Luke 23: 34            And Jesus said:  “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

John 19: 26-7         When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother,  “Woman, behold, your son!”  Then he said to the disciple,  “Behold, your mother!”

Luke 23: 43            To the criminal who rebuked his companion for taunting Jesus: “Truly, I say to you,                                            today you will be with me in Paradise.”

John 19: 28            After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), “I thirst.”                                  A bowl full of vinegar stood here; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and                                           held it to his mouth.

Matt. 27:46

Mark 15:34             “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Luke 23: 46            Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said:  “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”

John 19: 30            When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said,  “It is finished”, and he bowed his head                                       and gave up his spirit.

Description of Jesus suffering – ‘Questions of life’ – p.48